With the release of Pokémon Black and White 2, PETA’s new web ad claims that the Pokemon franchise is full of virtual animal abuse and, indirectly, encourages the abuse of real-world animals.

In the world of Pokémon, colourful cute creatures are captured by trainers with little devices called Pokéballs. Pokemon are then only let out to amuse trainers in battles or for other entertainment purposes. Unless you’re Pikachu of course. In the popular children’s show, Pikachu, for some reason, was rarely confined to a Pokéball.

“The way that Pokemon are stuffed into Pokéballs is similar to how circuses chain elephants inside railroad cars and let them out only to perform confusing and often painful tricks that were taught using sharp steel-tipped bullhooks and electric shock prods,” says PETA on their website.

Targeting the franchise’s young fan base is an attempt by PETA to capture the attention of children, and bring attention to real world animal abuse. The flash game hosted on PETA’s website, Pokémon Black and Blue: Gotta Free ‘Em all, allows players to control an abused Pokémon as he attacks his trainer and frees other enslaved Pokémon.

In many ways, PETA seems to have missed one of the series’ main messages – humans and Pokémon living together as equals, helping out one another for the betterment of society and the world. Also, a Reddit user posted an image of this message.

Still, they have a point about Pokéballs. What do Pokémon do in there all day, anyway?

Does PETA have a point or is this all just attention-getting nonsense?